A/N: Well! Here it goes chapter number three :) hope you all enjoy this as much as I am :)

Chapter 3: Breakeven.

I path my way outside the prison, all over the roof. The crashing of the little stones against my boots keeps my eyes opened during the cold night. I can see my breath and hear everything as everyone is asleep.

Below us, the un-dead are screaming and growling, trying to break into the prison. My eyes scan all over the dark, already used to it.

It's been more than 4 hours since I talked to Claire right here on the same spot. Sighing, I look around with my right hand on my holster while I keep pacing around the roof on guard.

In the middle of the night a scream suddenly breaks the deep silence. With my hand, I start running towards the corridor, on my way to the bedrooms.

I follow the remaining traces of sound to its source. One kick and the door is opened. I see Claire sitting on her bed, sweating and with eyes wide open "Claire." I approach her and sit next to her, facing her, "Are you okay?! What's wrong?" She breaks in tears and covers her face. I sigh and pass my arm over her shoulders, pulling her to my lap so I can comfort her. She keeps sobbing, grabbing my legs tight against her face. My hand runs through her red locks, trying to sooth away whatever feeling she's getting. Slowly, the sobbing decreases, and Claire begins to relax under my embrace. Her breathing becomes steady and normal again, which makes me assume she's asleep again.

I strategically manage to put her back to bed, but her arms are still wrapped to my waist. I lean against her, letting her head nuzzle into my chest, while my hand keeps caressing her hair. She mumbles something into her sleep and I just sigh, knowing her nightmares are assaulting her again.

The first time Claire and I made love, she fell asleep over my chest, and I held her against me protectively. The nightmares assaulted her in more than one ocassion, and I managed to fight them all away by whispering soothing words into her ear.

This time, I found myself in the same situation. "I'm here sweetie... No ghost, no monster, no person will hurt you as long as I hold you between my arms. As long as my heart keeps beating, you'll be safe. " She begins to relax at the words, with her nose hiding in the crook of my neck. This gives me some sort of hint to go on "You & me will be happy Claire. I promise we'll make it through. I'll save you from all of this..." I caress her sides, pulling her legs between mine, that way, they intertwine together tightly. I can feel her heart beating strongly against mine. The biggest smile curls into my lips. I finally have the woman I love between my arms, wrapped tightly, protecting her. I know she's scared, and as far as I know, she used to be just fine whenever I held her.

My eyes slowly begin to close, and my eyelids are heavier than the whole responsibility of saving the entire world from an inminent zombie apocalypse.

I drift off to sleepland, safe on my own world with Claire.

It might have been almost 8 hours, when I hear a soft knock on the door. My hand drives automatically to my holster, taking my gun and pointing to the door. Luther peeks his head between the door and the small space separating it from the wall "Breakfast time Cla-" he sees me there and his eyes widen like plates. "She had nightmares." He nods and shrugs "We'll wait for you two." I nod and he leaves, closing the door behind him. I fold back my gun, looking at the sleeping form between my arms, now holding herself from my clothes "Claire... Breakfast is ready." She groans a little, pulling me even closer by my shirt. "They said they'd wait but, we can't sleep forever... Let's go." Her eyes fly open and green eyes meet light blue eyes. She stares directly into my soul, with a familiar lust. My inner voice starts yelling at me to kiss her, but my brain suddenly screams louder not to. What if I scare her away? What if she's just staring at me?

I look away, gulping softly. She drives my eyes back to hers, with her soft fingers under my chin. I stare at her, right into her eyes.

She slowly begins to lean in, and my heart starts to race into my chest, almost breaking my ribs.

I see her even more close, and my hand slowly goes to her lips. I gulp and lean in a bit more. But in that moment, the door flies open and I sigh, my forehead resting against hers. Crystal was standing there "Wooow. I'm sorry." She laughs a little and shakes her head "Breakfast is ready. I was worried you two were lost or something." I nod and look at Claire. "We'll be there in a minute." She nods and leaves, closing the door behind her. Claire caresses my face and kisses my nose, starting to stand up from the bed. I sigh, standing up right behind her. I stir my clothes, looking to the floor. "Thank you Al." I raise my gaze from the floor, staring at her "I know I scared you last night, but, thank you for staying." I nod, with a slight smirk plasttered on my lips. "Anytime Claire." She grins and slides her feet into her shoes. I glance at her red hair moving as she leaves the room, and I smile even wider. She almost kissed me.

The rest of the day went by normal. Carlos attempted to talk to Claire, who utterly ignored him. I have the feeling he likes her. And who can blame him? She's beautiful, gorgeous, brave and amazing.

"And we still have normal water." I laugh and look at him while he hands me the towels. "It's cold." He shrugs sighing. "Guess I'll wait for you outside." "Thank you Luther." I say laughing a little. Once he leaves, I start undressing slowly while I free myself from the weight of all my weapons.

Finally naked, I see the water running and bite my lip softly. I got to get used to the cold water.

For the sake of being honest, the small things that I miss the most is the morning. The normal, mornings. Hot showers, cups of regular coffee.

Slowly, I begin to get under the cold flush of water, starting to draw soft paths over my bare skin. I close my eyes, relaxing under the water running over my shoulders and my back. My mind drifts away, letting the bad thoughts go away along with the water.

A crack on the floor drives me back to Earth and my eyes fly open, finding my gun right in front of me. I take it and point right in ahead me.

A familiar human form appears from behind the other shower and smiles softly, walking slowly to me. She grabs my gun and pulls it away. I look at her, following her soft movements.

Claire grabs the bottom of her shirt, pulling it over her head. She's wearing a white bra, that holds her magnificient breasts together. I look right at them, my throat tightening. Her hands go directly to my face and she leans in slowly. Her soft lips finally meet mine, slowly and carefully pressing together. My heart beats crazily and my hands go to her waist, pulling her even closer. Her soft and humid tongue parting my lips to find mine, softly caressing it. She presses herself against me, moaning a little at the cold contact of water against her warm skin. After a couple of minutes, she breaks the kiss and stares into my eyes. "Al... What were we?" She asks breaking the kiss, looking at me. I gulp and look at her "Claire we... We were together. We, were a couple." I look at her, guiltily. She smiles victoriously and presses our lips together once more, surprising me this time. I follow the trace of her jawline, going right to her weak spot, right bellow her ear. I press my lips against it, the very tip of my tongue against it. Her body shivers under my touch, while the very tip of my fingers trace the form of her waist, pulling her in closer. I keep tracking down, to her neck. I caress the back of her waist, pulling myself against her. She moans softly, searching for my lips. I kiss her, soft and slow, holding her tight against my body.

Another crack on the floor drives my atention to the very source of it. I pull Claire behind me, turning the water off and taking my shirt. I pull it over me, along with my pants. I take the towel and quickly dry my hair, hanging my guns on me again. I take off one of my pistols, ready for whatever it is to be.

The crack turns into a hole on the floor, and a Zombie running right to us. I shoot three times, and the filthy creature falls to the floor, growling. I look at Claire and sigh relieved "I..." Before I can say anything, another undead appears from that same hole, and I shoot him another three times. I look at Claire and she nods, taking her shirt and pulling it back on her. I smile at her and lean to kiss her again, really soft and quick. I hear footsteps and she pulls back. I laugh a little and nod at her "THEY ARE ALL GETTING IN!" Luther yells, looking at me. I look at Claire and she looks at me smiling.

"Arcadia will send help!" Crystal is desperate, and I'm not gonna lie, I understand her "No one, is going to come. We gotta help ourselves... Now that this plane that you have..." Bennet says, stating a fact. Thing is that my plane is only for two people. "Won't hold everybody." I say looking at him right in the eyes. "We can try a dra-" and that's when I know these people are being selfish, "NO. We all get out of here and no one is left behind." My face is all of a sudden serious and all of them know I'm not joking about this.

Running to the basement, we free Chris, the prisoner. "So, tell us." I say looking at him. He cracks his wrists and sighs "Down the storage, there's ammo. For more people than the one that worked here." I smile widely and look at Luther. He nods and then I step aside "You're sure we can get access to it?" But he's not looking at me. He's looking at Claire. Does he know her? "Claire?" "What?" She says looking right at Chris "Claire it's me... It's Chris." She looks back at me and then back to Chris. "Do you know her?" But he doesn't answer me. He just steps closer to Claire, who gulps and looks at him scared. His hand flies to Claire's left cheek, who grabs his hand and twists his arm to his back at the same time my hand lays over my gun on my holster, ready to shoot if the situation requires it. "I don't know you." She whispers softly against his ear. "Claire, I'm your brother remember? What the hell has happened to you?" I quickly run next to Claire, grabbing her arm softly and placing one hand on her back "Hey... It's okay. Let him go." I whisper softly, my words laced with security and confidence. She looks at me, lacing her eyes with mine, and softly lets go of Chris' arm.

She leans closer to me, resting her body against my side "She suffered memory loss caused by Umbrella Corporation's mental control device. If you really are her brother, it'll come back." He nods, while I wrap my arm around Claire's waist protectively, pulling her even closer. "Now let's get the hell out of here..."

Everyone starts going underground through the hole that the undead made in order to break into the prison. Claire is holding my hand tightly in hers, looking constantly behind us "Go." I say looking at her in the eyes and she shakes her head "Alice, no. I won't leave you." I smile softly and look at her "You got your memory back?" She shakes her head and gulps looking at me "But I want to." She says looking right into my soul. I nod and press my lips to her forehead, sighing. She looks into my eyes and presses her lips to mine and I kiss her back, sighing a little "No. Claire, I don't... Don't pressure yourself. If you don't feel it, don't do it." I say gulping, with a huge lump on my throat. She nods and looks down to the hole "I'll see you on the other side." I say winking at her. She nods and jumps inside, her hair falling like cascades through it.

Axe.

Suddenly an axe is on the floor right next to me. I follow the path and see an enourmous monster holding the ax's handle. I jump highly enough to kick him on the face, and in the moment my feet land to the floor, he pulls his ax against my side, throwing me against the wall, breaking a few pieces of it. I fall unconscious against the cold floor, with water falling around me. The ax is being raised up in the air, about to fall over me.

But someone shoots him, distracting him from me. Claire starts running once this guy turns around, looking right at her, with his ax attempting to cut her head off. Thankfully, she's quick enough to avoid it, by leaning down everytime this big guy tries to chop off her head. In the meanwhile, he breaks pipes, making the place look like a big fountain.

Quickly unfolding my gun, I shoot him right before he hits Claire, breaking his distraction.

Jumping against the wall, Claire makes her way over the guy's head, kicking it. Myself, shoot.

I run next to Claire, half covering her front with my body, while I take one of shotguns, loaded with my coin collection. Shooting precisely to his head, the big guy falls on the floor, dead. Or... Re-dead.

"Are you okay?" I ask looking at Claire, who's still staring at this monster. She nods slowly and looks back at me "Thank you." I say smiling widely. She nods and smiles bigger than me. There. That smile. My knees feel like jelly and I have to look down, the flush of red invades my face. She giggles and runs back to the hole, jumping in. I run behind her and jump inside, following our destiny.

A/N: Sorry about the delay! Got caught up on editing an R&I video and it took all of my time. Hope you all liked the way this is going. Any suggestions are REALLY welcome :)